Electrical energy transmission system



June 7, 1966 p mw 3,255,404

ELECTRICAL ENERGY TRANSMISSION SYSTEM Original Filed May 29, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Roaem' R Kaoweu.

ATTYS.

June 7, 1966 R. P. KIDWELL 3,255,404

ELECTRICAL ENERGY TRANSMISSION SYSTEM Original Filed May 29. 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 73 7 AA 99. 1 l A INVENTOR RoaEa'r P. Kwweu.

p/m a United States Patent Claims. Cl. 323-44 This application is a division of application Serial No.

S 113,443, filed May 29, 1961 on Apparatus for Controlling Conductive Fluids.

The present invention relates to apparatus for transmitting electrical energy through the medium of electronic plasmas, ionized gases, and other conductive or ionized One of the objects of the invention is to provide a means for efficiently transmitting electrical energy by a plasma stream confined to flow in a very limited area within a conduit, and to provide a means for coupling energy to and from the plasma stream.

-An all encompassing object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for satisfying the aforesaid objective and which is of simple and uncritical construction, can be economically fabricated and assembled on a mass production basis, and has a long service life under harsh and diverse conditions.

The features of the invention will be described in the specification to follow, the claims and the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view, partially in section, of an electrical power transmission system utilizing the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation-a1 view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, partially broken away, of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 2 showing the fluid confining magnetic rings constituting one form of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional view, taken substantially along section line 4-4 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showingthe magnetic lines of force of a pair of contiguous magnetic rings in the apparatus of FIGS. 1 through 4; 7

FIG. 6 is a sectional view through a modified form of the invention where high frequency energy is obtained from a flowing plasma stream confined by the magnetic rings shown in FIGS. 1 through 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a pair of rings forming part of the apparatus shown in FIG. 7; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of the high frequency coupling unit forming part of the apparatus shown in FIG. 7.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 through 5, there is shown a power transmission system constituting one form of the present invention which transmits electrical power from a generator 2 to a load indicated by a resistor 3. Instead of using electric cables for power transmissions, the invent-ion utilizes a stream of electronic plasma confined to a small area in the center of a conduit 5 made of metal or aninsulating material. As is well known, electronic plasma consists of highly ionized gases which comprise a mixture of electrons and ions forming an extremely good conductor of electricity. Normally, such plasma is heated to a high temperature to maintain substantial ionization of the gas. It will be assumed that the plasma is heated and maintained at the high temperature required by any suitable means.

The conduit 5 is in the form of a continuous elongated loop. The energy from the generator 2 is coupled into the flowing plasma stream in the conduit 5 by a more or less conventional transformer unit gene-rally indicated by invention, the ring magnets are positioned in coaxial align- 3,255,404 Patented June 7, 1966 reference numeral 7. This transformer has a core 9 made of magnetic material having a leg 9a around which primary windings 11 are wound and, a leg 9b around which one end of the elongated conduit 5 passes to constitute a secondary winding. The genera-tor 2 is connected to the opposite ends of the primary winding 11 and the magnetic flux generated in the core 9 is coupled to the plasma within the conduit 5 to induce an alternating electrical field which imparts back and forth movement to the electrical particles within the plasma, effectively to generate an electrical current analogous to the generation of a current in a wire. In a similar way, the energy within the flowing plasma stream may be coupled therefrom byv an output transformer 7' including a core 9' with legs 9a and 9b. The conduit 5 loops around the leg 9b to constitute a primary winding of a transformer. A wind ing 11 winds around the leg 9a to constitute a secondary winding of the transformer and a load resistor 3 is connected across the ends of the winding 11'.

It is important that the plasma be confined within the central portion of the conduit 5 as a continuous stream, so that the stream does not strike the walls of the conduit 5 and the diameter of the plasma stream remains fairly constant. Where undesiredresonant conditions build up in the plasma stream, the diameter thereof can vary widely in diameter and perhaps build up to a maximum diameter where it would strike the conduit walls or become so small as to cause a discontinuity in the plasma stream,

which adversely affect the efficiency of energy transmission and cause corrosion of the conduit walls.

In the particular form of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 through 5, the means for confining the plasma flow within the conduit 5 comprise a series of permanent magnet rings generally indicated by reference numeral 15. As illustrated, the conduit 5 has a cylindrical cross section and the ring magnets 15 are of a diameter somewhat less than the inside diameter of the conduit 5. The rings are supported within the conduit by spacer members 17 which may be adhesively or otherwise secured between the walls of the conduit and the ring magnets.

As shown most clearly in FIG. 3, each of the ring mag- A opposite axially facing side 15b. The magnetic field pattern of each of the ring magnets is shown by the arrows in FIG. 5 and is similar in shape to a doughnut. In accordance with one important. aspect of the present ment within the conduit 5 and in alternating opposed relation so that the north pole side of a given ring magnet will face the north pole side of the adjacent magnet and the south pole side of any ring magnet will face the south pole side of the adjacent ring magnet. With such an arrangement, the direction of the lines of force of adjacent magnets oppose rather than reinforce one another. In effect, the integrity of the magnetic field of each of the ring magnets is maintained so that a magnetic field pattern is provided within the conduit 5 which alternates in directions along the conduit. The magnetic field pattern comprises the individual pattern elements contributed by each ring magnet, which extends generally axially within the ring and generally radially at points between the contiguous ring magnets.

The alternating magnetic field pattern described enables the invention to influence and thereby confine m-oving positively charged elemental particles, moving negatively charged elemental particles and even moving neutrally charged elemental particles carried along with the rest of the plasma stream. mental particles, a displacement current or charge is usually induced therein by the varying magnetic field link- In the case of uncharged eleing the same which enables by the magnetic field.

When the ring magnets are spaced in a regular manner, it is possible for .a resonant interaction to occur between the field and the moving plasma which causes wide variation in the diameter of the plasma stream. To minimize this condition, the ring magnets are spaced in an irregular manner along the conduit 5. That is to say, the spacing of these magnets varies and the spacing between the maximum and-minimum spacings points varies so that an irregular spacing pattern results.

1 As previously indicated, the ability of the magnetic field to confine the plasma (or other conductive medium) is a function of the relative velocity between the plasma and the magnetic field in terms of the number of field reversals traversed by the plasma particle and the field strength. A large field strength requires a smaller relative velocity and a small field strength requires a large relative velocity for a given result; For example, if with a field strength of 1000 gauss good results are obtained if the plasma particles are subjected to 10 field reversals per second, similar results will be achieved with a field strength of 100 gauss at field reversals per second. The present invention is also applicable to a situation where the magnetic field producing elements do not follow the contour of a conduit, but follow an independent path within a much larger housing, as in the form of the invention shown in FIG. 6. The application of the invention illustrated therein is one for converting the output of an alternating voltage generator 55 at one frequency to a substantially higher frequency through the medium of a flowing body of ionized gas caused to traverse a continuous loop path located within an isolatinghousing or chamber 57.. The chamber 57 may contain ionized hydrogen at a very low pressure. The output of the generator 55 is fed to the primary winding 11 wound on a core 9 of magnetic material forming part of a transformer 7 similar to the transformer described in connection with the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2. The core 9 has a pair of parallel legs 9a and 9b located on opposite sides of a wall of the chamber 57. The legs of the core bridging the ends of the legs 9a and 9b extend through isolatinggaskets 60 on the chamber 57 to maintain a low pressure therein.

A series of ring magnets are arranged together to form a continuous loop as in the form of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, one end of the loop extending around the leg 9b of the core 9 of the transformer 7. As above indicated, the ring magnets 15 in this form of the invention do not follow the contour of the chamber 57. The ring magnets 15 are. held together by struts 61 to form an integral structure which in turn is suspended in any suitable way within the central portion of the chamber 57. For example, the ring magnets may 'be supported by insulating rods 63 secured to the walls of the chamber 57 (see FIG. 7).

The hydrogen within the housing 57 may be initially ionized by a heater coil 65 or the like in the manner commonly. use-d to ionize the gas in fluorescent light bulbs. The ionized hydrogen ions are accelerated by the electromotive force induced within the portion of the ring mag such particles to be affected net loop surrounding the core 9b, and the resulting fiowing hydrogen ions are confined to the path defined by the ring magnets.

Relatively high frequency energy can be extracted from the flowing hydrogen ion stream by means of a coupling unit generally indicated by reference-numeral 67. The coupling unit 67 illustrated in FIG. 8 comprises a series of parallel conductor Wires 69 each approximately onehalf wave length long relative to the frequency which it is desired to generatetherewithin. The wires are spaced apart a distance which the moving hydrogen ions will advance in a half cycle of the frequency to be generated. The wires 69 are interconnected by short lengths of wire 71 each of which is an odd multiple of a half wave length n at the frequency involved. A conductor 73 is coupled to the inner end of one of. the outer wires 69 to couple energy from the coupling unit 67. The coupling unit 67 in effect acts as a receiving antenna system Which extracts energy from the moving ionized hydrogen stream ata frequency dependent upon the velocity of flow of the hydrogen ions and the geometric dimensions of the coupling unit 67 It should be understood that numerous modifications may be made of the preferred forms of the invention described above without deviating from the broader aspects of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An electrical energy transmission system comprising: a core of magnetic material forming part of a transformer, a winding wound on said core, enclosure means forming an enclosed space isolated from the surrounding atmosphere, an ionized medium in said space, guide means for confining said ionized medium to flow in a continuous path in said space, said guide means looping around said core so that magnetic flux therein links the ionized medium confined to said path.

2. An electrical energy transmission system comprising: a source of alternating current to be transmitted, a core of magnetic material forming part of a transformer, a,

primary winding wound on said core and coupled to said source of alternating current, enclosure means forming an enclosed space isolated from the surrounding atmos phere, an-ionized medium in said space, guide means for confining said ionized medium to flow in a continuous path in said space, said guide means looping around said core so that magnetic flux therein links the ionized medium confined to said path, and means for coupling energy from the ionized medium confined to said path.

3. An electrical energy transmission system comprising:

a source of alternating current to be transmitted, a core of magnetic material forming part of a transformer, a

primary winding wound on said core and coupled to said source of alternating current, enclosure means forming an enclosed space isolated from the surrounding atmosphere, an ionized medium in said space, guidemeans for confining said ionized medium to flow in a continuous path 4. An electrical energy transmission system comprising:

a core of magnetic material forming part of a transformer, a winding wound on said core, means forming an enclosed space isolated from the surrounding atmosphere, an ionized medium in said-space, guide means for confining said ionized medium to flow in a continuous path in said space, said guide means looping around said core so that magnetic flux therein links the ionized medium confined to said path, and means for coupling energy from the ionized medium confined to said path comprising a series of antenna elements extending parallel to one another and arranged transversely to a portion of said path, said antenna elements having a length resonant to a desired frequency to be generated therein by the flowing ionized medium.

5. An electrical energy transmission system comprising:

a source of alternating current to be transmitted, a core of magnetic material forming part of a transformer, a

primary winding wound on said core and coupled to said source of alternating current, means forming an enclosed space isolated from the surrounding atmosphere, an ionranged transversely to a portion of said path, said an- 5 6 ized medium in said space, guide means for confining said References Cited by the Examiner ionized medium to flow in a continuous path in said space, UNITED STATES PATENTS said guide means looplng around said core 50 that magnetic flux therein links the ionized medium confined to 2,473,477 6/1949 Smlth 313 62 said path, and means for coupling energy from the ionized 5 2,616,022 10/1952 Amaud 323-50 X medium confined to said path comprising a series of an- 2,675,470 4/1954 Wlderoe 328 237 tenna elements extending parallel to one another and artenna elements having a length resonant to a desired frequency to be generated therein by the flowing ionized 1O LLOYD MCCOLLUM Primary Examiner medium. W. E. RAY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY TRANSMISSION SYSTEM COMPRISING: A CORE OF MAGNETIC MATERIAL FORMING PART OF A TRANSFORMER, A WINDING WOUND ON SAID CORE, ENCLOSURE MEANS FORMING AN ENCLOSED SPACE ISOLATED FROM THE SURROUNDING ATMOSPHERE, AN IONIZED MEDIUM IN SAID SPACE, GUIDE MEANS FOR CONFINING SAID IONIZED MEDIUM TO FLOW IN A CONTINUOUS PATH IN SAID SPACE, SAID GUIDE MEANS LOOPING AROUND SAID CORE SO THAT MAGNETIC FLUX THEREIN LINKS THE IONIZED MEDIUM CONFINED TO SAID PATH. 